Manuscript Material on the Installation, Operation and Maintenance of the UNIVAC, 1949-1957

JF Ptak Science Books

This is a group of materials from the estate of Ralph Mullendore (see below), an early and integral team member of the electronic computation section of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, who was responsible for the installation and maintenance of the UNIVAC there, at Census. The papers are on their way to a history of computer science section at the library at North Carolina State University where they will hopefully be enjoyed by any and all who have an interest in the early stages of the maintenance and tinkerings on America's first commercial computer. It should be remembered that the hands of the man who wrote all of these notes were the same hands that worked on this monumentally important machine, the first of its kind in existence.

Many more images, below.

Ralph Mullendore Archive//UNIVAC (for UNIVersal Automatic Computer)

Mullendore was one of the principal engineers responsible for the installation of the UNIVAC I at the U.S. Census Bureau. [From the Miami Herald-Mail, 16 February 1999. “Ralph E. Mullendore, 88, of Silver Spring, died Thursday, Feb. 11, 1999. Born Sept. 2, 1910, near Hagerstown, he was the son of the late Harry and Atha Mullendore. He graduated in 1933 from the University of Maryland at College Park with a degree in chemical engineering. He was a charter member of the Maryland Alpha Chapter of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He worked for the Census Bureau in Suitland, Md., where he was a member of the team working on the nation's first computer, UNIVAC I. He worked for the bureau as a computer diagnostician and troubleshooter, retiring in 1984 after 33 years. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and then as a Navy officer, attaining the rank of commander. During World War II, he developed and patented an azimuth finder, a navigational aid used aboard Navy vessels.”]

Text section (pictures below)

Section A

Origional drawings for different parts of the UNIVAC, mostly having to do (I think) with card reading. All executed on 11x8.5-inch sheets. 15 items.